DISPATCHES FROM BERNIE SANDERS’ VERMONT: The idyllic northeastern state being ravaged by drugs, crime and homelessness: ‘People don’t feel safe.’
Downtown areas of Burlington and Brattleboro, among other cities, were too dangerous to walk at night, following reports of passers-by being attacked by thugs, locals told DailyMail.com.
Some blame the crises on costly social programs in a Democrat-leaning state that has Bernie Sanders as a senator and gave President Joe Biden a 36-point landslide win in 2020.
‘People don’t feel safe going into the cities anymore,’ small business owner and Republican candidate Mark Coester told DailyMail.com.
‘They can walk down the street and visibly see people with needles stuck in their arms. Our towns and cities are suffering, and now the feeling of hopelessness is only getting worse.’
Vermont’s problems are on display in Burlington, its largest city, with some 44,000 residents, including some 350 unhoused people living on the streets or camped out on the idyllic waterfront of Lake Champlain.
Many of them congregate at night in Church Street, the beloved red-brick home to boutiques and eateries, ravaged by such drugs as fentanyl and xylazine, also known as ‘tranq,’ scaring off locals.
Residents recently told Fox News that the area gets ‘really dangerous’ at night.
An older woman remarked that locals don’t step foot in the area after dark because ‘people get beat up at nighttime.’
Since the end of August, Burlington police have been warning residents of the need to be on guard, after a string of attacks by ‘large groups of suspects and perpetrators,’ which included juveniles.
David Brooks could not be reached for comment.
